This invention relates to oral compositions including toothpastes, toothpowders, mouthwashes and the like. More particularly, this invention relates to oral compositions which contain a fatty acid ester of a sugar alcohol such as lactitol and maltitol.
Oral compositions such as dentifrices generally contain surface-active agents for enhancing the detergency thereof. Such agents for oral application are required to foam well and be free of uncomfortable factors such as bitter and rough tastes and nasty odor as well as being safe. In addition, it is essential that dentifrices containing a surface-active agent can be stored for a prolonged period of time without any deterioration including discoloration and syneresis since dentifrices may be displayed in the store for a relatively long period of time before they are used by the consumers.
Surface-active agents used for oral compositions are anionic and nonionic. In general, anionic surface-active agents are widely used because of their good foaming power. It is recognized that nonionic surface-active agents are superior to anionic agents in stabilization of effective ingredients and juice effect. For example, sucrose fatty acid esters which have recently come to prevail are recognized as having improved juice effect. However, many of conventional nonionic surface-active agents have a poor foaming power and give uncomfortable taste and odor. Sucrose laurate and sucrose myristate, for example, taste bitter though they have a relatively good foaming power among various sucrose fatty acid esters. Furthermore, when dentifrices containing sucrose fatty acid esters are stored for an extended period of time or at a relatively high temperature (as occurring during ordinary storage in summer), they tend to be discolored yellow and are susceptible to syneresis, resulting in unacceptable dentifrices.